UNDP in Afghanistan

6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Where are we?

In Afghanistan, there is an absence of data, and currently, and little effort is being made in collecting data in order that HIV prevention or the spread of HIV can be contained. Without data, there is no reliable estimate of the spread of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan.

HIV/AIDS prevalence is still very low among general population (possibly the lowest in the world), but it has increased during the past decade. There has not been a general survey to determine the percentage of people suffering from HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan, its prevalence among blood donors however has decreased constantly from 0.13% in 2005 to 0.01% in 2012.

There have also been achievements in reduction of malaria and tuberculosis. In 2008, an estimated number of 46 malaria related deaths were reported, whilst in 2012 this number was reduced to 36, though to reduce this number to 5 by 2015 is too difficult to achieve, hence progress is off-track. Similarly, withregards to incident rates associated with malaria (%), and reduction of proportion of population in malaria risk areas using effective malaria prevention measures, and under-fives sleeping under insecticide treated nets (5), progress is not promising with the targets set for 2015 unlikely to be achieved.

With regards to prevalence rate of tuberculosis, its reduction from the value of 351 (per 10000 people) to 224 in 2015 may be too difficult to achieve, while progress on the reduction of death rate associated with tuberculosis from the current 39 (per 10000 people) to 36 by 2015 is on-track.